Styles of Explanation in Japan and the United States

The Implications of Cultural Difference in Elementary Education

Abstract

This paper examines the differences in styles of explanation between Japanese and American elementary school students. In order to investigate the styles of explanation, this study pays special attention to the “order” in which events are organized and illustrated.
The experiments, which use a series of four graphic representations, revealed that Japanese students have a strong tendency to state whole events in chronological order, while American students tend to state the result or effect first and identify causes in their explanations. When they are asked to give reasons, American students single out an immediate cause and eliminate other events, while their Japanese counterparts keep to the chronological order. Also, whereas Japanese students conclude their compositions with “social/moral” comments of events, American students explain the relationship between events by cause and effect with “factual information.”
The study demonstrates that how the “order of events” is grasped influences the evaluation of events and the meaning that can be drawn from a series of events. In a multicultural context, there is a danger that the difference in style is sometimes mistaken for the difference in the abilities of students from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is of critical importance in education to realize the existence